Rattlesnakes throughout California will soon become far less visible, in some cases hiding from sight entirely as we enter the cooler late fall and winter months. But some populations of snakes will remain active right through this period.

An initiative to help the UC System reduce its carbon footprint begins this week. The "Cool Campus Challenge" is in response to UC President Janet Napolitano's call for the system to reach carbon neutrality by 2025.

Science, technology, engineering and math are all school subjects typically geared toward boys, and represent careers fields dominated by men. But, there’s an effort taking place on the Central Coast to tutor adolescent girls in this so-called ‘STEM’ curriculum.

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara are beginning work on a project that could reduce the amount of groundwater and power that is used by farmers in the state, after receiving a grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) of $2.3 million.

Samples are being taken from tar balls showing up on beaches in Southern California to see if the oil could be coming from the pipeline spill in Santa Barbara County.

The LA County Public Health Department closed beaches Wednesday in the South Bay, including Hermosa and Manhattan Beaches, because of the oil. The beaches could open as soon as Friday.

NOAA says its working to track the Refugio spill's movement with help from scientists at UC Santa Barbara. David Valentine is a Professor of Earth Science at UCSB and says tracking this oil presents a unique challenge.

The Isla Vista community was on alert Monday night as Santa Barbara County Sheriff's deputies and UCSB Police searched for a person thought to be connected to a shooting earlier in the evening.

The incident happened around 7:30 p.m., less than a block from the UCSB campus. Deputies say they were called to a residence on the 6500 block of Sabado Tarde after a report of shots fired during a domestic dispute.

California's Secretary of State Alex Padilla will be at UC Santa Barbara Thursday to speak with students about the importance of voting.

Padilla said that he and a lot of others in the political world were dismayed by 2014's record low voter turnout in California.

He said that getting more people involved in the political process is important. With a school like UCSB, where there are thousands registered to vote, he said their participation, could really shape an election.

The international awards are piling up for the UC Santa Barbara professor who helped create energy-saving LED lighting.

UCSB's Shuji Nakamura was named this year's Global Energy Prize Laureate, announced Thursday in Moscow. Nakamura is being recognized for his lighting invention that's helping to save billions of dollars in energy costs worldwide.

LEDs had been around for decades, but not the white light versions that are currently replacing incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.

The University of California is putting a cap on the number of out-of-state students that can attend certain campuses next year.

This new rule will not apply locally to UCSB. The number of non-resident students attending both Berkeley and UCLA will be capped at current levels and UC San Diego will be held to 20 percent according to the new rule.

UCSB's non-resident percentage has more than doubled in the past five years at 9.2 percent last fall. The average for the UC system not counting those campuses under the cap program is six percent.